Water interaction headcanons
Wednesday, 2 January 2019 14:41![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
yvannairie(Reposted from Tumblr.)
Mecha with aquatic alt forms aren’t the only ones that are waterproof. In fact, most mecha are well-shielded enough that shorting out in water rarely happens, and in the 30-100m range the biggest problem is limited mobility. Going deeper than that, the problem becomes one of pressure – Cybertron has a pretty sparse atmosphere and without necessary reinforcements, various components (such as the spark chamber) have fairly low crush depths. Even with being fitted for seafloor operation, it’s sort of like working in extremely low temperatures. Stuff will start failing, it’s not a matter of if but when.
I also don't think cooling would be that big of a problem underwater -- the low ambient temperature will help with the cooling. Shuttered vents are another easy failure point, though, especially on light frames that are heavily reliant on airflow cooling, such as racers and light vehicles that use a two-cycle cooling system (drawing air in and cooling it before it passes over the components that require cooling), but water also damps movement to the point where frictional heat pretty much stops being an issue.
Also, self-repair nanites don’t actually know what the fuck to do with the micro-organisms, so if mecha don’t thoroughly drain and wash themselves there’s a chance the presence of foreign organisms will trigger what is essentially an autoimmune response, with fever-like symptoms, as it tries to kill them dead so they don’t start replicating. Injuries sustained underwater also have a high chance of oxidising, especially in salt water, which also fucks with how nanites operate. Often they’ll “scar” for a significant time as the surface oxids need to be thoroughly cleared away before the recostruction of mesh can start (b/c oxidisation has a bad habit of spreading), which is less of a problem when it’s just a welt across the paint job and much worse of a problem when it’s a joint that gets broken or dislocated due to a structural deficiency.
Oh and as a total aside b/c Rosy and me were talking about this the other day, the problem with cold weather operations is icing, not temperature. Mecha are warm, moisture gathers and then freezes and expands, limiting movement and causing injuries. That’s why cold-climate operations are on a time budget – heating themselves up enough to protect against the icing issues is a huge fuel sink and it’s still not enough if there’s no way for them to dry themselves up.
Mecha with aquatic alt forms aren’t the only ones that are waterproof. In fact, most mecha are well-shielded enough that shorting out in water rarely happens, and in the 30-100m range the biggest problem is limited mobility. Going deeper than that, the problem becomes one of pressure – Cybertron has a pretty sparse atmosphere and without necessary reinforcements, various components (such as the spark chamber) have fairly low crush depths. Even with being fitted for seafloor operation, it’s sort of like working in extremely low temperatures. Stuff will start failing, it’s not a matter of if but when.
I also don't think cooling would be that big of a problem underwater -- the low ambient temperature will help with the cooling. Shuttered vents are another easy failure point, though, especially on light frames that are heavily reliant on airflow cooling, such as racers and light vehicles that use a two-cycle cooling system (drawing air in and cooling it before it passes over the components that require cooling), but water also damps movement to the point where frictional heat pretty much stops being an issue.
Also, self-repair nanites don’t actually know what the fuck to do with the micro-organisms, so if mecha don’t thoroughly drain and wash themselves there’s a chance the presence of foreign organisms will trigger what is essentially an autoimmune response, with fever-like symptoms, as it tries to kill them dead so they don’t start replicating. Injuries sustained underwater also have a high chance of oxidising, especially in salt water, which also fucks with how nanites operate. Often they’ll “scar” for a significant time as the surface oxids need to be thoroughly cleared away before the recostruction of mesh can start (b/c oxidisation has a bad habit of spreading), which is less of a problem when it’s just a welt across the paint job and much worse of a problem when it’s a joint that gets broken or dislocated due to a structural deficiency.
Oh and as a total aside b/c Rosy and me were talking about this the other day, the problem with cold weather operations is icing, not temperature. Mecha are warm, moisture gathers and then freezes and expands, limiting movement and causing injuries. That’s why cold-climate operations are on a time budget – heating themselves up enough to protect against the icing issues is a huge fuel sink and it’s still not enough if there’s no way for them to dry themselves up.
